


Between Here and Home

by my_unlikely_hero



Series: Avengers Drabbles [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Child Abuse, F/M, Howards A+ Parenting, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 08:40:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7094638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_unlikely_hero/pseuds/my_unlikely_hero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Previously titled "Everything in Between". Boarding school au. How everything went from OK to bad to worse to better. IronWinter is my baby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Here and Home

**Author's Note:**

> WinterIron is obviously my baby. Anyone have some prompts? Cause I'm trying to brauden my horizons. Please review? Any thoughts? Pointers? You're super! <3  
> A/N: it's not up to my usual, but I've been hoarding it to work out the lumps but I seem to have hit a wall on this. It is what it is. My apologies
> 
> Take the warnings seriously. I just can't seem to stop hurting Tony. Read at own risk.

A/N: it's not up to my usual, but I've been hoarding it to work out the lumps but I seem to have hit a wall on this. It is what it is. My apologies. 

 

 

Howard yells the entire drive to SHIELD boarding school. All three hours of it. 

“- Worthless, I don't understand how you even got in. It better not turn into some expensive, posh vacation. I'm telling you right now, boy, you aren't getting any cash out of me.” 

The only reason Howard had even agreed to sign the papers was because of Tony’s scholarship. Director Fury had taken one look at Tony Stark's application- outstanding grades, and an impressive list of awards for inventions- and had offered the 16 year old a full ride, complete with boarding and a meal plan. All Tony had to do was get Howard to sign the papers and find a ride in. 

“Shame we have to take for you for breaks. Maybe I can talk to the Director about that. They can keep your stupid ass.” Howard rants about how stupid Tony is, bringing home just how worthless his father thinks he is. 

Tony lets him drone in the background- he knows just how useless and stupid he is, Howard's certainly told him enough times. He wonders if Obadiah will come visit him. He had promised he would. 

It's raining when they pull into the parking lot. They barely made it in time for the office, and Tony grabs his one duffle bag of clothes and belongings and runs to the registration office. Howard pulls away and speeds out of the lot. He doesn't look back. 

The lady behind the desk takes Tony's papers and gives him a map and a schedule, and rushes him out of the office so she can close. 

Tony forgot his jacket in the car, leaving him bare except for the Henley he's wearing to hide the bruises. He wanders campus, a little lost, until he stumbles across his dorm. 

His roommates are nice enough. Steve is a little uptight, sort of like Howard but without the rage part. He imagines this is how his father acted before he began drowning himself in bottles. 

Bucky is hot, as is Clint, who is dating Phil. Natasha, a Russian ballerina apparently, is dating Steve. The first time she sees him ogle Steve's pert ass she leans down to whisper death threats into his ear. 

It's a couple of days into semester and Miss Russian princess smuggles in a bottle of vodka and they play never have I ever. Tony ends up trashed and in bed with Bucky fucking Barnes, who is all teeth and hard muscle and growls in Tony ear as he fucks him mercilessly ‘yeah, take it.’

But he also holds Tony afterwards and calls him darlin’ and sugar and holds his hand when they walk together. Which is a totally new concept to the boy. Tony's previous experiences were brief. Usually the other party(ies) left as soon as they could, leaving Tony to clean up the mess and wallow in his loneliness. But Bucky is different. It's nice. 

They've been dating for a month and have successfully fucked on every possible surface of the apartment. Steve gets an eyeful of the boys tangled together on the table, and bans sex outside of the bedroom. After Steve leaves for his date, Bucky pounds Tony against their front door in protest. 

Obadiah visits once every week or two, and even meets Tony's friends- he's more of a father to Tony than Howard has ever been. 

“That's your uncle?” Bucky asks in disbelief. “As in, blood relative?” It's just the two of them as they walk home. Obadiah had taken the couple out to dinner so he could meet Bucky. 

“Not exactly but he's Howard's best friend, and he's been around my whole life. He likes me more than Howard does.” Tony points out. Bucky and their entire group knew about Howard's temper. They had all seen the bruises those first few days, had out the puzzle together without Tony having done anything. 

“Yeah, he likes ya all right, darlin’. Wouldn't take his eyes offa ya the whole night. Stared at ya all through dinner.” Bucky sounds odd. 

“He just misses me, Buck. Can you blame him? I'm pretty awesome,” Tony grins cheekily. He doesn't understand what his boyfriend is getting at. 

“Like you were a piece o- never mind. Just watch yourself around him. I don't trust the guy,” Bucky admits slowly. 

“He's my godfather, Bucky. Not a perv. Cmon, babe, it's fine. Let's talk about something else.” 

Director Fury did not let Tony stay over fall break. Tony and Bucky fuck like rabbits the whole weekend before Howard comes to pick Tony up on Monday. Steve is thankfully at Nat’s probably doing the same thing. Bucky makes Tony come for the last time as his father pulls up to the building. 

“I love you. Text me when you can. I'll see you after break.” Bucky kisses him goodbye. 

Tony is stuck listening to Howard complain about how inconvenient Tony was for the ride home. It's too damn far to keep driving to pick your ungrateful ass up. Howard had to take the day off to come get his son from school. 

‘You're getting fat what the hell are they feeding you? You better not start expecting me to chauffeur you around.’

Tony misses school already. 

Maria was in a pill haze when he arrived back at their apartment. Without Tony there to clean, it was a mess of liquor bottles and dirty dishes and trash. At least Obadiah was glad to see him. 

Thanksgiving passes without notice at the Starks, but Tony gets a call from Bucky that cheers him up. Natasha and Clint text him happy holidays and Steve calls with the same message, old fashioned as he is. 

Howard has been smacking Tony around the entire week he has been back, but it all comes to a head the night before school starts back up again. 

Tony makes the mistake of asking for a ride back to SHIELD and Howard throws a now-empty whiskey bottle at his head. Tony was pretty sure it was brand new when the man had started. He screams about how stupid and worthless Tony is while he kicks the boy into the stained carpet. At some point Tony loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he packs his duffle and leaves. 

Tony ends up hitchhiking back. His body aches from the abuse and neglect. Every breath is a pain in his chest. And he's pretty sure that bottle to the head gave him a concussion. At least the blood has clotted. 

His cell phone has been dead for days- Howard didn't pay the power bill, so Tony hadn't been able to charge it. He doesn't get any of Bucky and Natasha's missed calls. He does show up at the dorms several days late, trembling with neglect.

He doesn't knock. His key is still in his duffle, despite the odds. It's ridiculously late at night- or early morning, depending. He's dirty from sleeping in the dirt and he still has blood on his clothes. 

“Shit,” Bucky takes Tony in his arms and carries him to the couch. 

All of the weight he had gained over the last weeks has melted away again. The dark pool under his functioning eye tells Bucky he hasn't been sleeping either. Bruises are large and dark, only getting worse as Bucky pulls Tony's shirt off gently. His ribs are a little swollen and his breath is shallow. 

His ribs are broken and his wrist is sprained and he's covered in bruises all over,some of them swollen and going deep into the muscle. His eye is swollen shut for a week afterwards and his jaw aches when he talks. 

Bucky and Steve want to call CPS but Tony won't let them. Against their better judgment, they agree. Clint- when he and Phil come around the next day- doesn't look much better. It's obvious that he's in the same boat as Tony. It looks like Phil has been taking care of him the way Bucky has been nursing Tony. 

“You too, bird brain?” Tony asks, propped up against Bucky on the couch. Phil helps Clint hobble into the room on crutches. 

“Yeah, man. Fuckin’ pushed me down the stairs. Bastard.” His tone is deceptively light. 

“Naw, belts are where it's at.” Tony shows off the bloody welts left behind. 

“I still win.”

“You're both nuts,” Bucky quips.  
He heals and goes back to class. He programs on JARVIS and has impossibly gentle sex with Bucky. 

A few weeks after fall break, Tony gets a call. Howard and Maria were in a car accident. Howard had been drunk and neither had made it. Obadiah would be there in the morning to pick Tony up for the funeral. 

Bucky stays up with his boyfriend that night, holding him as he cries over the loss of parents that Bucky wasn't sure he had ever really had. Obadiah is there at 9am and Bucky carries Tony's bag downstairs for him. 

“Be careful, sugar. I love you, Tony.” He tells him as he hugs his boyfriend goodbye. He will be back after Christmas, but it's too long. An entire month, between the planning and the actual funeral and then winter break right after. 

He watches the car drive away, and goes back to bother Stevie so he doesn't get lonely. 

 

The first week passes in a blur. Tony stays at Obadiah's now, on the couch again. So at least that's not new. People call with condolences and wish him the best of luck. It means nothing but Tony thanks them anyway because Obi’s hand is comforting on his shoulder or his back or his hip. Always touching him, giving comfort where he can for the boy. Bucky calls him every night, and texts frequently. It helps distract from the shock. 

The funeral passes. Bucky calls and Tony ignores it. He drinks until he's as drunk as he ever remembers being and then he doesn't remember anything so it must not matter. When he wakes up the next day his ass hurts like he's been fucked with something much bigger than Bucky's cock but he doesn't remember anything so it doesn't matter.

Obadiah pokes fun at Tony's pain and hands him a glass of juice, and encourages him to drink the whole thing. Tony's head spins again and he feels drunk. The next day he doesn't remember. 

It happens again a few days later. Obi presses a drugged glass into the boy's hands, and watches as he drinks it. 

Tony loses entire days like that. He remembers pieces- a heavy weight on top of him, too heavy and soft and too forceful to be Bucky; the taste of booze in his mouth and the smell of cheap cigars. Mostly the pain the next day. Puking his guts up and feeling like the worst hangover ever and influenza had a love child together and it's chosen Tony as its victim. 

He tries not drinking them- spilling them or refusing them or spitting them out- but Obadiah is a big man. He drank them whether he wanted to or not, choking as it was forced down his throat. Every time afterwards, he had woken in a closet where Obadiah left him for several days. Obadiah knows it had been a favorite of the late Howard. 

Bucky still texts everyday but Tony doesn't answer most of them. He doesn't know what he would say- I'm scared come get me sounds a bit dramatic considering that Tony is fine.

He's fine. His ass fucking hurts all the time now and he wakes up naked and bruised and bleeding, even.. But he's fine. It's fine. It doesn't matter if Tony doesn't remember anything. Because if he doesn't remember then how can he know anything actually happened? 

He's a wreck by the time semester comes around and it's time to go back to school. His hands tremble like autumn leaves on a branch and he hasn't slept in at least three days. He hears Bucky's chiding voice in his head reminding him that food is a good thing but he can't seem to keep it down. He vomits everything up in a matter of minutes. 

Obadiah shoves Tony in a cab instead of taking him to SHIELD himself which is fine by Tony. He can't stand to be around the man now. He's always touching him, with his meaty paw on Tony shoulder or his back or his ass. It makes his skin crawl. It makes him want to vomit. 

It's a long ride back, Tony is surprised that the cab will actually take him the whole way. But it's at least three hours of sitting on his ass and it hurts. 

Tony remembers a glass being shoved into his hand and Obadiah demanding he drank it. Blurry memories of being smothered, and pain. That must have been last night then. He had washed blood off of himself in the shower this morning- Tony stops the train of thought. 

He thinks of Bucky instead. He wants to be wrapped in those big arms. Protective ones not smothering ones. Holding him, not hurting him. Bucky would never hurt him. Would never let anyone else hurt him. God. He would kill Obadiah if he knew. It's a small consolation. 

He misses being held. That had been so new when he came here- being held gently and cuddled. He doesn't remember the last time Howard had been even passive towards him, never mind anything close to fond. And Maria hasn't spoken Tony's name in years, why would she cuddle him? His past relationships consist of quickies and hookups. Tony had heard Natasha use the words touch starved. Bucky had held him more after that, as if to make up for all of the years when no one else would. 

He loved Bucky. And wow, Bucky loves him, too, for some reason. Neurotic, manic, emotional, emotionally stunted Tony fucking Stark. Worthless, broke-ass moron. But Bucky loved him. 

Clint kinda did too. Obviously not the same way, but he might be sad if Tony died. 

Natasha wouldn't really be, but she would be upset if Clint was upset just on principle. (They were besties, since they grew up together under the same gymnastics coach. They could have made it to the olympics if Nat hadn't had such anger management issues.) 

Steve didn't hate him. He was kind of like Natasha, he would be upset that Bucky was sad, but probably wouldn't miss Tony, himself. 

But still, it was the most anybody had cares about him. 

Buckys gonna know, he realizes with a jolt. His boyfriend always knows when sometime is wrong. And huh, he was right about Obadiah, too. 

It's too late to devise an excuse- or an escape route. The taxi driver is pulling up in front of the dorms. 

Walking hurts. It's like he's walking to a guillotine. Physically, he hurts, too. Every step shoots pain all the way up his spine and down his bruised thighs. It burns most where he's trying hardest to ignore. 

The stairs are hell. He's shaking, gripping the banister. He practically collapses inside the apartment. Steve and Bucky are in the kitchen cooking something. Probably lunch. Natasha and Clint are painting each others toe nails on the couch. Clint sees him first, with his stupid hawk eyes. (C'mon, the guy's an archery champ! It's not fair.)

“Tony!” He cries, hands flying up.

All eyes draw to him. This is worse than he imagined. Everybody that had ever thought he was anything more than fucking worthless, sitting in one room.

God, this was a bad idea. He should leave but he can't move. He just stands there- well, leans there, against the door like it's the only thing holding him up. It is. 

“Shit. Tony,” that's Bucky, rushing over like he thinks something is wrong. Tony is immediately wrapped up in the very hug he's been dreaming about for weeks, and he ruins it by fucking flinching. 

Bucky pulls away, gently holding Tony by the shoulders and staring at him from arms length. He can feel the boy shaking even under the jacket he had apparently stolen from Bucky (he had been wondering where it went) 

Tony stares back, wide eyed. “Tony? What happened?” 

How did he know? Tony hasn't even said anything! 

“I don't- I don't know.” It's the truth. He doesn't know. He's got blurry flashes of useless information. Useless, like Tony. 

“You were right. About Obi.” He hopes Bucky knows what he means, because Tony isn't sure Tony understands he means. 

“Shit.” Buckys face pales. Apparently he's got some clue, then. “Someone call an ambulance.” 

What? Ambulances? A little overboard, he thinks. He says as much. 

“You were raped, Tony,” Bucky says, not unkindly. “You need a hospital.” 

“I don't- I don't remember,” he insists, like he's backtracking. Trying to figure out where Bucky got confused because he wasn't raped. He wasn't a girl. 

Bucky gently wipes at the tears on Tony's cheeks. He didn't even know he was crying. Stupid. 

“I'm stupid,” Tony chokes on the words. He's sobbing like a baby. 

“No, darlin’, no-” in the background, Natasha is talking briskly into the phone. It sounds like she's had a lot of practice. Maybe she really is Russian mafia. 

“He kept handing me drinks and I kept drinking them. Fuck you, im a fucking moron.” 

“It's okay, sweetheart. You're gonna be okay, everything's is gonna be fine.” 

It's finally silent in the room. Tony sneaks a peek at the group. They all look pissed. Probably at Tony for being so fucking useless. 

He burrowed his face back into Bucky, who was still rubbing his back gently. Like he knew how much Tony hurt right now. 

“I'm sorry,” he mumbles. 

“You don't have to be sorry for anything, Tony. Sweetheart.” 

“Yeah, okay. Then why does everyone look pissed?” Tony wonders aloud. 

Slowly Bucky helps him to the couch. There's blood smeared on the door where Tony's back had been leaning. His shuddering doubles. 

“Christ. Get me a blanket, Stevie.” To give him a soft barrier from his skin and the rest of the world, and to cover his dirty clothes. 

But Tony won't let Bucky pull away. They compromise and Steve wraps it around both of them. 

The EMTs show up with a gurney, which they absolutely make Tony ride on. Bucky set him on top gently, mindful of his worst injuries. He hisses with the discomfort, regardless. The EMTs trade a pitying look. 

They almost don't let Bucky ride with him back to the hospital- Tony being a minor- but his heart starts racing and he screams as one of the men forces Bucky away. 

“NO!” He jumps up, despite the pain. “No, no don't leave! Bucky, please, don't leave!” 

He's begging, and struggling so hard that everyone fears the boy might hurt himself. He only stops when his boyfriend is there, holding his hand. It would be cute if it weren't so tragic, the workers think. 

They get him on an IV of fluids, because he's dehydrated. Morphine, because they saw the blood the halls, hip height to a short man, and on the door and Bucky's lap where Tony's ass had been. He's fucking bleeding all over the place, and Bucky simultaneously wants to kill someone and bundle Tony up and run away with him. Far, far away. 

Tony grips Bucky's prosthetic hand with what must be a death grip, because his knuckles are white. They cut his clothes off as to not agitate his injuries. He's left dealing bare and exposed in a flimsy hospital gown. 

Geez, it's bad. There are cigar burns and bite marks and bruises and carpet burn. He's too skinny, he's lost every pound he had gained and then some. Especially so soon after Howard had kept him starved and skinny. 

His back is covered in more welts now- fresh ones overlaid the ones left by Howard. Some of these were weeks old. This had been happening for weeks and Tony hadn't said a word to him about it. Or at all, actually. He had hardly texted Bucky after the funeral and never answered his calls. 

He shouldn't have let Tony go off with the creep. 

The doctor get samples and puts Tony under for the worst of the wound care. And yeah, Bucky figures that's for the best. 

Tony wakes up, and the police get a statement. Bucky sits by his side constantly and everyone in the ward has begun to fondly refer to him as Tony guard dog. Which is fair enough because half the time he feels like he could rip someone's throat out. But right now his boyfriend needs him. 

Natasha is to be feared. She walks in 48 hours later with papers claiming Tony emancipated. And Obadiah Stane doesn't get a trial- he's found dead in his apartment when the police arrive to arrest him. An apparent suicide, but Bucky knows better. Russian mafia. But he keeps his yap shut and dotes on his boyfriend. 

Tony and Bucky take off a semester- he's not sure how they wrangled it, but Mrs. Rogers took one look at Bucky and Tony in her doorstep and promised to take care of everything. She called Director Fury and informed him they would be mailing assignments to the boys and that no, it was not a hassle. Fury bent to her will without argument. 

Tony graduated with Bucky and Steve and went to MIT and started inventing. JARVIS made him billions and they lived happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this early because I was scrolling tumblr and saw one of my stories shared and I'm crying. I didn't think anybody liked these! Just this morning I was complaining about my poor writing skills. Anyways, thanks so much. You guys are all super fantastic and I love you <3


End file.
